This ban would cross the line, wouldn't it?
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Monroe County Board of Health is considering a proposal to prohibit smoking in vehicles carrying children.
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Caudill says children are a "vulnerable population" who may not be able to avoid secondhand smoke.
I mean the line between public space and private space. The prohibitionists have generally kept their bans confined to public spaces, using the justification that even people who don't want to smoke are exposed to secondhand smoke. They've stayed away from private space for reasons both practical (not enraging the general public) and moral (not taking government where it doesn't belong).
But the inside of my car is my space no less that the inside of my house. Whatever is true for children inside a car -- they're vulnerable to smoke they can't avoid -- is true for children inside a house as well. Going from a ban on smoking inside a car with kids to a ban on smoking inside a house with kids would be a matter of degree, not a change in philosophical principle.
